I took my Cooper to Century about a month ago for belt whine, they replaced the belt tensioner, all is good for about a week. The noise comes back, and the only place I can get an appointment I can make is in Charleston. I get down there, and they take it back, and then shortly call me back to help point out the noise. Chad was my MINI Tech, absolutely great tech, and guy and has a awesome Cooper. Well I hangout with him while he looks for a problem, he checks a bunch of things, and then finds that two of my pulleys (Alt. and water pump) are messed up. He shows them to me and they look like someone ran a metal grinder across them. Century is the only other place to touch the car, and I noticed some scratches to the alt pulley when I go it back, but thought it was only cosemetic damage. So now I have an appointment with Century to hopefully get this solved without to much drama. I wasnt to impressed with them at first and now I will never go back once this is resolved, Hopfully Im the only one that has experience this problem

 

David, I am sorry to hear that :(

 

David
I hope it all works out.
A

 

That sucks, I'm really starting to get a bit put off of Century Mini. Good luck.

 

Took it in Today, they were alright about it. Not as friendly as Charleston or Charlotte, but thats okay. The Head Tech looked at and immediately asked who had worked on it. They gave me a rental car, a Dodge Caliber, its horrible, its just not a MINI, but its a car. Overall I say they have handled the problem well, just not well enough to win me back.

 

I've heard mixed reviews about the service department at Century. I've never had an issue with them and they've always been very courteous and receptive, and least in the days when Jim Pickett was the SA. I haven't had any experience with their new SA, Matt, although he's been friendly when I've talked to him.
I very much doubt if Brent, their senior MINI mechanic had worked on it. He's been there ever since the 2002 model, and has always been very conciencious when working on my MINI, making sure everything is correct before I leave. They have another mechanic, but I don't know anything about him.

 

Part III

The story only gets worse. Century's service manager gave me a call yesterday asking me if I had ever been in an accident. I have back in the winter of 07. I took it to John Harris Body shop in Lexington, SC. The supposedly fixed everything. I had a bunch of issues with them. They took forever for a small repair, horrible painting, wrong wiring, didnt attach the lower chrome grill properly, and left it insanely dirty. Well all those problems got fixed, and I was as happy as I could be after all of this.

Back to yesterday. The SM said that my radiator housing was cracked, most likely from the accident.-_- Thank you John Harris Body shop. He also thought th other damage could have been from them as well, I doubt it, they Century would have caught that when they changed the belt tensioner. So now insurence has to get involved, and he said the claim will be easily over $1,000. So it looks like Im gonna be MINI-less for a while now.

I feel like I'm writing an Epic.

 

This whole thing has gotten fishy

They noticed that I had been in a wreck because of the radiator crack. There is no record that they fixed the problem.

I know there were no marks on at least the alt. pulley. I looked at it dozens of times, and when I left the dealership the problem immediately appeared.

If it was caused by the accident how could the noise wait more than a year to appear.

Why was it not noticed by the person repairing the belt tensioner and brought to my attention. Hendricks did not notice the problem during my 10,000 mile oil change.

I just dont understand how the insurance company could believe this when I am struggling to.

Never again will I step foot into that dealership once I have my MINI back, and I advise you to do the same.

 

David.,
My David and I decided to buy another mini.. We called about a new 08 we saw on the century website.. an 08 for 18050. I gave the man the vin number.. he verified the car was there.. I said good for 18050 we will be there.. ahhh there in lies the rub.. he said the car was 22000... I repeatedly pointed out that it was 18.. he said no read the ad.. the car STARTS at 18.. I said uh no read the ad it says 18.. and that I had a screen shot of it. He then tried to tell me it was a typo.. I said.. how do you typo 18.. when trying to type 22.. made no sense.. this went on for awhile. He told me Thurs.. the SM would call me back.. no phone call.. nothing.. so off we drove to Charleston Mini.. and purchased the same car.. even cheaper then what Century wanted. Not a good way to do business whatsoever.
This is your mini.. you know it.. you know what it should or should not sound like.. If you truly don't believe this damage was due to an accident.. that it is something they caused.. I would consider talking to your insurance company letting them know.. it could be fraud.. You could call another mini dealership.. tell them what is happening and get another opinion.. if you can prove the damage was caused by Century.. then I would let them deal with your insurance.. it normally doesn't go well .. when someone lies to insurance and is called out.. and most of the time.. all the sudden the truth will come out.
I am sorry your dealing with something like this.. We will be thinking about pearl

 

A tech at Charleston MINI also struggles thinks the damage wasn't caused when the belt tensioner was changed. He just doesnt see how it could have happened any other time.

This has been very rough for me because my parents are on cruise, and I have been dealing with this all on my own, and I have never dealt with anything like this.

 

Carol's sales experience at Century was very similar to mine. After seeing their dishonest sales practices first hand I drove to Hendrick in Charlotte and bought mine there.

I was shocked at Century MINI's behavior as I had bought a number of BMWs from Century and had always had a good experience. But, based on my unpleasant sales experience at Century MINI, I will also never use or recommend them.

 

One more interesting similarity I had with Carol is that Century MINI also tried to rip me off for about $4,000.

 

Well we ended up down in Charleston.. and were thrilled to bring home davids new mini last week. They were very helpful and friendly.. A+.. This was the same dealership who sent the clubmans to Helen. Carol Lee.. the SM and Dana!! kudos to all of you at Hendrix Mini of Charleston

 

The service dept. is great down there too. we need some pics of David's MINI. Looks great in the one in you gallery

 

David
I would call MINI USA and complain about the dealership and explain what has happened.
Art

 

I have thought about that, but I wasnt sure If that was who I go to. Thanks for clearing that up. My dad talked to a BMW tech that lives nearby my home, and he says that century has not gone about this process in the right way. They should have filed with MINI warranty, and then the insurance company. If insurance didnt cover it then they would. Century didnt do this. He also said that it sounds ridiclous to him that they are blaming the damage on the accident. He thinks they are trying to cover it up because the tech. that did the work and the damage would have to pay for it out of his pay check because it was "rework". The bill was $1400 so they would be a little reluctant to pay that.

 

The MINI sales staff at Century USED to be excellent until their new manager came along. He's your typical car salesman/manager. All the good sales reps left after he came along, and he replaced them with his buddies from the dealership he came from. It's all bottom line $$ with him. I sure do miss Henk! he was awsome!

As far as service goes, once my MINI went out of warranty and since they transferred service from Jim Pickett to Matt, I now go elsewhere for service. PM me or ask me next time you see me and I'll tell you where.

 

Well all was cleared up after I almost had to pay the $1400 myself. An insurance adjuster came out a looked at it and surprisingly said the cover almost all of it. I now have her back, and I fell in love with her all over again. I guess one good thing came out of this. I realized all over again just how fun the car is.

 

Glad to hear all is well and ya got it back! Next time you're in Charleston, let us know and me, you and Chad will go to 5 Brothers for lunch! ( I think its 5, maybe 3, but AWESOME burgers n fries!)

 

Next time you think your getting ripped, call MINIUSA and also when you put in your 2cents worth on service give them a bad rating. That costs the dealerships more than anything. Sorry you had the problem, but maybe someone from Centruy will read this on our website and maybe changes could be forth coming? Then again maybe they could care less about their rating or customers. Want to hear a good one. Somewhere between San Antonio Texas my check engine light came on. This was sunday and just kept driving after checking everything out. Nearest dealer was Scottsdale, Arizonia. I pulled in they gave me a free oil change, car wash and turned off the check engine light, but said it would probably come back on. It did a thousand miles or so later. They said they had never seen some of my mods, and that was the most on a mini they eversaw and wanted to know what some of them were. They were a 1st class, I think Penske owns it and it connected to the BMW Dealership, white shirts, black pants and very nice, no free sodas or water like Hendrick and they were not laid back. All businness and no pleasure. It was a good experience. My service engine light was due to Headers giving false reading, will fix it now that I am back. See they ain't all bad, maybe a little stiff shirt but they got the job done and went out of their way to get me fixed and rolling. Luke

 

I called MINIUSA, they said there wasnt anything they could do.

 

Glad you got it worked out, happy I could have helped in any way....Next time your in town, stop by

 

I hate to hear of your troubles, but glad it looks to be worked out.

I had great service from Linda and Henk with my '03 MCS and that played a large part with my being a return customer. About 2 weeks after getting the '07 MCS I picked up a nail, so the runflat had to be replaced. Dropped the car off and the service mgr (Jim) called and said this was the new generation runflat so it had to be ordered. It would take 2-3 days for the tire to arrive and I'd be without my car

Somehow I just didn't see that happening, so I had my wife run me by Century after work. I talked with my MA (John) and the MINI Manager (can't remember his name), but they pulled the only other 'S' off the lot and gave me one of the runflats off it. They made me a happy customer

 

Dave,

I'm glad it all finally worked out. I wouldn't recommend Century Mini to anyone. I hope you won't have to go back there again.

Dave

 

Hmmm, maybe I should transfer my warranty work that is scheduled for Tuesday. Pain to go to Charleston or Charlotte though.

It does seem that since I bought mine in Jan of '06, Century has really "gone down hill".

BTW, Matt is no longer the SM. He's now a sales guy.
And, I have had some issues with service in some form or another almost every time I go.